ROMAN EMPERORS IN POPULAR JARGON: SEARCHING FOR CONTEMPORARY NICKNAMES (1)1 By CHRISTER BRUUN Popular culture and opposite views of the emperor How was the reigning Emperor regarded by his subjects, above all by the common people? As is well known, genuine popular sentiments and feelings in antiquity are not easy to uncover. This is why I shall start with a quote from a recent work by Tessa Watt on English 16th-century 'popular culture': "There are undoubtedly certain sources which can bring us closer to ordinary people as cultural 'creators' rather than as creative 'consumers'. Historians are paying increasing attention to records of slanderous rhymes, skimmingtons and other ritualized protests of festivities which show people using established symbols in a resourceful way.,,2 The ancient historian cannot use the same kind of sources, for instance large numbers of cheap prints, as the early modern historian can. 3 But we should try to identify related forms of 'popular culture'. The question of the Roman Emperor's popularity might appear to be a moot one in some people's view. Someone could argue that in a highly 1 TIlls study contains a reworking of only part of my presentation at the workshop in Rome. For reasons of space, only Part (I) of the material can be presented and discussed here, while Part (IT) (' Imperial Nicknames in the Histaria Augusta') and Part (III) (,Late-antique Imperial Nicknames') will be published separately. These two chapters contain issues different from those discussed here, which makes it feasible to create the di vision. The nicknames in the Histaria Augusta are largely literary inventions (but that work does contain fragments from Marius Maximus' imperial biographies, see now AR. Birley, 'Marius Maximus: the Consular Biographer', ANRW IT 34.3 (1997), 2678-2757, esp. 2689 f and 2736 for epithets and appellatives after Commodus' death). For Late Antiquity, the conflict between traditionalists and Christians constitutes a new element (not surprisingly, many sources concern Julian the Apostate). An earlier paper on Imperial Nicknames was presented in June 1997 at the Universities of Munster, Gottingen, and FU Berlin. Two recent works by Eleanor Dickey, 'KUPlE, OEGTTOTa, damine. Greek Politeness in the Roman Empire',Joumal a/Hellenic Studies 121 (2001) 1-11, and Latin Forms a/Address/ram Plautus to Apuleius (Oxford 2002), are of interest for my undertaking, but they are not directly relevant to the question of nicknames and epithets. I wish to thank the participants at all these events for helpful comments and am particularly indebted to Anthony Birley, Bruno Bleckmann, Franyois Chausson, C.J. ClasseD, Jonathan Edmondson, Johannes Hahn, and Olivier Hekster. Last but not least, sincere thanks are due to Lukas de Biois, Gerda de Kleijn and the other organizers of the Rome workshop. 2 T. Watts, Cheap Print and Popular Piety 1550-1640 (Cambridge 1991),4. 3 For an exemplary study, see R. CUs!, 'News and Politics in Early-Seventeenth Century England', Past & Present 112 (1986), 60-90, esp. 65-69. 69 CHRISTER BRUUN - 9789004401631 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 09:25:38AM via free access stratified society such as the Roman world the common people would automatically feel only hostility towards their oppressors. Or one might consider the question equally uninteresting because people who regarded the emperor as one of their gods would never think of blaming or criticizing him. Both these views find some support in the ancient sources, a fact that shows the question to be rather more complicated and hence worth investigating. In the collection of writings by the stoic philosopher Epictetus we find the following passage about the relation between the emperor and his subjects: "In this fashion the rash are ensnared by the soldiers in Rome. A soldier, dressed like a civilian, sits down by your side, and begins to speak ill of Caesar, and then you too, just as though you had received from him some guarantee of good faith in the fact that he began the abuse, tell likewise everything you think, and the next thing is - you are led off to prison.,,4 "Speak ill of Caesar" - here we find one contemporary view of the Emperor illustrated5 But it is not the only one. Aelius Aristides, another Greek writer, writes in his famous 'Praise of Rome' in the following way about Roman governors in the provinces: "No one is so proud that he can fail to be moved upon hearing even the mere mention of the Ruler's name, but, rising, he praises and worships him and breathes two prayers in a single breath, one to the gods on the Ruler's behalf, one for his own affairs to the Ruler himself.,,6 This, then, is the opposite view held by the subjects (albeit we are here dealing with upper-class subjects). They pray for the wellbeing of the 4 Epictetus 4.13.5. Translation by WA Oldfather (Loeb Classical Library, henceforth LCL). 5 This is probably the source of the claim by P. Veyne, 'The Roman Empire', in P. Veyne (ed.), A History ofPrivate Life 1 From Pagan Rome to Byzantium (Cambridge, Mass. 1987), 5-234, esp. 97, that Romans were wont to curse their emperor and the gods (no reference is given). Similarly also in Ambrose, De Helia et jeiuno 12.41; see Sr. MJA Buck (corrunentary and translation), S. Ambrosii De Helia et jeiuno (Patristic Studies 19, Washington, D.C. 1929),74 f.: "Men without a tunic, without even funds for the following day, lounge at the doorways of taverns. They pass judgement on emperors and officers of state; indeed they seem to themselves to reign, and to corrunand armies" (de imperaton'bus et potestatibus iudicant, immo regnare sibi videntur et exercitibus imperare). 6 Aelius Aristides, Eis Rhomen 31-32. Trans!. by J.H. Oliver, The Ruling Power. A Study of the Roman Empire in the Second Century after Christ through the Roman Oration ofAelius Aristides (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 43.4), Philadelphia 1953, 899 chapter 32. 70 CHRISTER BRUUN - 9789004401631 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 09:25:38AM via free access emperor, and they pray directly to the Emperor, who in many ways is similar to a god even while still dwelling among his subjects on earth. But being a god did not make the emperor immune from criticism; for this we can once more rely on Epictetus: "But no, you sit trembling with fear something will happen, and lamenting, and grieving, and groaning about other things that are happening. And then you blame the gods! Although you have these faculties free and entirely on your own, you do not use them, nor do you realize what gifts you have received, and from whom, but you sit sorrowing and groaning, some of you blinded toward the giver himself and not even acknowledging your benefactor, and others - such is their ignoble spirit - turning aside to fault­ finding and complaints against God."? It is thus apparent that whether a Roman emperor was regarded as man or god, he would not have been beyond criticism, and therefore investigating the popularity of Rome's rulers is a meaningful task. Moreover, we can begin by excluding the 'ruler cult'8 from our considerations, as we have now seen in Epictetus that common people might curse gods as well as human beings. We cannot a priori assume that Roman emperors would have been immune from imprecations or profanities. Emperors, the aristocracy, and the common people The popular appeal of the Roman emperors is clearly a very wide topic. At least since Fergus Millar's The Emperor in the Roman World (London 1979; Ithaca, N. Y. 1992, 2nd ed.) there has been an awareness of the structural importance of the emperor as an institution in the Roman world. Yet a study of the popularity of the emperors was not part ofMillar's enterprise. Many works discuss the relations between the rulers and their subjects in the Roman world, but traditionally the focus has been on the often troubled 7 Epictetus 1.6.38,42. Translation by WA Oldfather (LCL). 8 Various aspects have been illuminated by S. Price, Rituals and Power. The Roman imperial cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge 1984); D. Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire I-IJ (Leiden 1987-1992); U.-M. Liertz, Kult und Kaiser. Studien zu Kaiserkult und Kaiserverehrung in den germanischen Provinzen und in Gallia Belgica zur romischen Kaiserzeit (Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae 20, Rome 1998); M. Clauss, Kaiser und Gatt. Herrscherkult im romischen Reich (Stuttgart 1999) See now also the contribution by Professor Panciera in this volume, with some sceptical comments on the concept of 'ruler cult'. 71 CHRISTER BRUUN - 9789004401631 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 09:25:38AM via free access relations between the emperors and the upper c1ass. 9 It is a commonplace that the senatorial aristocracy found it difficult to accept one-man rule; and even the 'good' emperor Vespasian had to deal with a Stoic opposition in the Senate. There is not much new to be found in this regard; Tacitus' view of the Principate is well known and so is, at the other end of the spectrum, the loyal Pliny's view of 'good emperors' such as Trajan - to mention two representative sources. The study of the relations between the emperors and the common people, the anonymous masses of the empire, is a more recent phenomenon, and it is certainly much more difficult to approach and correctly define the feelings and opinions of the lower strata in the Roman world.